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THE PUBLICATION TWO MONTHS AGO of papersfrom an alleged spyworking for the SpanishMinistry of the Interiormay open new leadson the lead-up to the dirty war against ETAduring the 1980s. Investigations into andcourt proceedings relating to the GruposAntiterroristas de Liberación/Anti-TerroristLiberation Groups (GAL) and the anti-terrorist policies of Felipe González’sadministrations, Interiorministers Corcueraand Barrionuevo and secretary of state forSecurity Rafael Vera have cast light on theculpability and responsibility both ofpoliticians and of the police and para-policemercenariesmaking up the thugs of the GAL.Have the alleged papers of agent JacintoGuerrero Lucas (known to anarchists as “ElPeque” and to ETA leaders as the Spanishstate’s “El Botijero”) opened up fresh leadsin the investigation of the whole imbroglioor do they merely pursue some hiddenpurpose in the war between the PartidoPopular (PP) and the PSOE? Timewill tell, ifthe authenticity of the papers can beestablished or ifmore surface and, above all,if the will exists on the part of the Spanishand French states to get to the bottom of amatter that is profoundly embarrassing forthem both.In the meantime we can retrace thecareer of the supposed author of saiddocuments, the spy Jacinto Guerrero Lucas,someone who has always operated in theshadows and through intrigue, shrouded inmystery and suspicion. His career may havehad tragic consequences for anarchists andfor supporters of Basque independence. If,some day, certainty can be achieved about

the services that agents like himhave alwaysrendered to the state, we may well get aninsight into the realmechanics of the “modeltransition“.1. Jacinto Guerrero Lucas, the diplomaticface of the GAL?On Sunday 3 April the front and inside pagesof El Mundo carried a report entitled “Agentfrom InteriorMinistry off to apply the brakesto the GAL trials in France”. According to thisreport, that agent was Jacinto GuerreroLucas, alleged ex-anarchist, freemason, spyand consultant to Rafael Vera at the Spanishministry of the Interior. On the basis ofdocuments allegedly from the privatearchives of this agent, El Mundo reportedthat Guerrero fed lavish Uinancial aid toFrench police ofUicers and judges to stall thetrials then being mounted in France against

Xavier MontanyàJacinto Guerrero Lucas, the Spy with Three Faces

Journalist Xavier Montanyá traces the career of a spy allegedly planted in anarchist and GRAPO (Grupos deResistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre) circles in France under the Franco dictatorship and allegedly a

cohort of the GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación) under a democratic regimeTranslated by Paul Sharkey

Jacinto Guerrero Lucas

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GAL mercenaries and kept the minister andFelipe González himself briefed as to hisactivities. To support this, the paperpublished fragments of the alleged originalcorrespondence.The Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación(GAL) were set up to eliminate ETA activistsliving as refugees in Northern Euskadi andin the south of France and, between 1983and 1987, the GAL murdered twenty sevenpeople.

El Mundo does not disclose how itaccessed Guerrero’s private archives, but itclaims that Guerrero retains a copy of hispersonal and ofUicial correspondence fromthat time with the upper echelons of thegovernment and Spanish Socialist Party,between 1989 and 2004. Quite apart fromthe question of authenticity or credibility ofthe said documents, their provenance andthe timing of their release into the publicforum, the information they contain placescentre stage a minion of the Barrionuevo-Vera duo with a mysterious past, and a keyUigure in French-Spanish police cooperation,operating openly butmore signiUicantly fromthe shadows.Sowho is this Jacinto Guerrero Lucas akaÁngel Guerrero Lucas aka ‘El Peque’? It ishard to track the details of his career as a spyor whatever it is that he is today. But fromtime to time he has featured in mediareports. It has been placed on record thatJacinto Guerrero Lucas was Rafael Vera’smost highly paid spy, because he was a

freemason and because of his excellentconnections with French freemasons,especially French Interior minister (1986-1989) Charles Pasqua, a fellow freemason,as is Robert Pandraud the deputy ministerin charge of the Sûreté.Between 1980 and 1990, GuerreroLucas’s name was mentioned in the role ofmediator between the Spanish governmentand ETA. In 1988, the far right newspaper ElAlcázar referred to his services as datingback to the days of the Francoist Interiorministry. His name has also been linkedwiththe Renseignements Généraux (RG), theFrench secret service agency created byMarshal Pétain back in 1941 and directlytied to the Interiorminister. A political policeagency engaged in intelligence anddisinformation, specialising in anti-terrorism, drug smuggling, illegal gambling,prostitution, etc.Be that as it may, Guerrero Lucas’sprivileged position at the Spanish Interiorministry lasted over two decades. Verifyingthese claims is currently difUicult. Accordingto El Mundo, Antoni Asunción tried to havehim removed when he took over as Interiorminister in 1994. Later, Margarita Robles,the secretary of state of the Interior inBelloch’s day, also tried to have himremoved, but some sources insist that thisproved impossible, following pressuresbrought to bear by French Interior MinisterCharles Pasqua. Whereas other sourcesargue that the failure followed paymentsmade to ensure that the French authoritieswould endorse the extradition of ETAsuspects. It is said, though this is hard toprove, that his fate might have been sealedwhen another French Interior minister(1995-1997), Jean-Louis Debré, insisted ofMayor Oreja that Guerrero be stood downand play no further part in the anti-terroriststruggle within France.It was subsequently reported that JacintoGuerrero had been recruited by CESIDCharles Pasqua

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(* Son of the rationalist schoolteacher José Alberolawho served onthe Council of Aragon during the 1936 revolution, Octavio Alberolareached France in 1960 from exile in Mexico, accompanied by JuanGarcia Oliver, the formerminister of Justice of the Republic and one-timemember of the Los Solidarios action group. The DI’s objectivewas to breathe new life into the armed struggle against the Francoregime. Alberola was to become the most active coordinator of allthe actions mounted against the dictatorship by the DI in the 1960sand, later, by the First of May Group.)

(Centro Superior de Información de laDefensa — Superior Center of DefenceInformation, the Spanish intelligence agencybefore the current Centro Nacional deInteligencia [CNI] took over as its successorin 2002). thanks to his close relationshipwith Civil GuardGeneral Enrique GonzálezGalindo, former commander at theIntxaurrondo barracks.But Jacinto Guerrero Lucas is his ownchief publicist. Two photographs from thattime immortalise the major players at theInteriorministry. Taken at the launch of twobooks endorsed by himself, defending hisstance and that of his superiors. The Uirstdates from 1997 at the time of the launch ofEliseo Bayo’s book GAL: Punto +inal. Thesecond, taken in 1999 during the investitureof Santiago Belloch as Interior minister,shows theBarrionuevo-Vera-Corcuera trioplus former Civil Guard Director, JoséAntonio Saez de Santamaria.How did Javier Guerrero manage tobecome such a player? How had he climbedso far? How did he launch his career as aspy?2. The 1960s. El Peque and the SpanishLibertarian Movement in FranceIt was 1960 when Jacinto Guerrero Lucas,nicknamed ‘El Peque’ (Shorty), Uirstappeared in libertarian circles in Toulouse(France), during the Limoges congress,

precisely at a time when the CNT, theLibertarian Youth and the FAI had decided toset up a secret agency called DefensaInterior (DI) to mount operations againstFranco. The council of the DI was headed byCipriano Mera, Juan Garcia Oliver, AcracioRuiz, Germinal Esgleas, Vicente Llansola,Juan Gimeno and Octavio Alberola*, who isnow the sole surviving member of this line-up. In a phone conversation from the southof France about ‘El Peque’‘s trustworthinessat that time, Alberola stated: “I have noconclusive proof as to when he Uirst startedworking with the police. He was introducedto me in Toulouse in 1961, after theformation of theDI, as having just completedhis military service.

Jose Barrionuevo, Eliseo Bayo (author and former‘anarchist’ then working for the Lyndon Laroucheorganisation), Guerrero Lucas, Rafael Vera and José LuisCorcuera (at the launch of Bayo’s book — GAL: Punto Final)

EL MUNDO, 3 April 2011

Octavio Alberola and Jacinto Guerrero Lucas (1961)

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That may well have been when he wasUirst recruited by the Francoist services, and,on learning of the creation of the DI, theydecided to send him in. That is a possibility,but there is no proof. What we do know isthat in 1962 the leaders of the exiled CNTintroduced him to the chief of theRenseignements Généraux in Toulouse,Commissaire Tatareau, in relation to hisapplication for political refugee status.Tatareau was the man in charge ofmonitoring the CNT for the Frenchauthorities. It’s possible that his [GuerreroLucas’s] career started with that contact.”What operations was he involved in?“In July 1962 a bomb exploded on thebalcony of Valencia City Hall, from whereFranco had delivered a speech just daysearlier. It was a warning. Only three peoplewere in the know: El Peque, myself and anItalian comrade, Franco Leggio. No arrestswere made, so, up until that point, I had noreason to suspect him.”

When did you Jirst suspect him?“In 1962 hewas basically in charge of liaisonwith the Interior. Then, one day, a briefcasefull of documents (including contact detailsof the organisation in Spain – SC), including,according to him, his I.D. papers, was stolen.After that he was sidelined from all activity.It was at that point that he got to knowCommissaire Tatareau — and the briefcaseturned up again, but I never did Uind outwhat it had contained and what had beentaken from it.”And did you keep in touch with him?“I severed all connectionswith him. Later, on19 August, there was to have been anattempt on Franco’s life at the Ayete Palacein San Sebastián (in the Basque Country, butthe attempt failed due to Franco arriving lateat his summer residence, although thedetonators did explode. ‘El Peque’ had noknowledge of the plan and no arrests weremade other than some ETA militants whohad had nothing to do with the attack.”Octavio Alberola heard nothing furtherabout ‘El Peque’ until the latter succeeded ininserting himself into the mechanics of anattempt on Franco’s life in Madrid in thesummer of 1963. Again, it did not succeed,but the plan had tragic consequences, in theshape of the affair involving FranciscoGranado and Joaquin Delgado, the twoyoung libertarians executed in Carabanchel

Octavio Alberola Surinach (DI Co-ordinator) Jacinto Guerrero Lucas

Franco Leggio, 1972

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prison on August 17 1963, charged withattacks in which they had had noinvolvement. His intervention here wascrucial, as I shall explain anon.In the aftermath of these events Guerrerodistanced himself completely from anarchistactivist operatives.“When Granado and Delgado werearrested”, Octavio Alberola recalls, “we hadno reason to suspect him. He then vanished.Three of four weeks later there was amassive swoop on Spanish libertarianmilitants across France. Twenty one ofwhom were arrested for “criminalconspiracy”, including veterans CiprianoMera and José Pascual. Sixtymilitantswerequestioned and their homes were searched.Jacinto Guerrero Lucas’s name was on thelist, but they did not arrest him. We saw nomore of him until he popped up again in theanti-action faction led by FedericaMontseny and Germinal Esgleas, a factionhe had previously criticised harshly as ‘do-nothings’. As time passed he shifted ground.Later, throughGordón Ordas, the presidentof the Republican government-in-exile, a

freemason like himself, he made theacquaintance of Julio Alvarez Del Vayo,regarded as the inspiration behind the FRAP... ‘El Peque’ shows up as connected toeverything— but never gets arrested. “3. Granado and Delgado, a Lawful CrimeThirty years on, in 1996, in research linkedto the documentary Granado y Delgado, uncrimen legal, the production teammanagedto secure an interview meeting with JavierGuerrero Lucas regarding his part in thoseevents. The meeting took place in a bar inPerpignan in the early hours. El Peque is aperson of affected rather than naturalmannerisms. He uses a peculiar rhetoric,gesticulates a lot, as it to underline the truthof his claimswhich are usually emphatic and

Joaquin Delgado

Cipriano Mera José Pascual ‘El Peque’, Perpignan 1996

Francisco Granado Pueblo, 3 August 1963

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wreathed in Ulorid adjectives.We had a quickchat prior to the interview and he told methat, in his view, many reporters are “theabsolute dregs” and that his politicalawakening had come very early on: “Iremember watching from the window, as aboy, as herds of workers Uilled the streets atsix o’clock in the morning, on their way towork. And do you knowwhat the pavementswere like after they had passed through?Covered in sputum. Because TB wasrampant in Spain.” I was taken aback by hisvulgar (chulo) vocabulary, a style that I hadnever encountered among libertarians.He stated that at that point he wasworking for the Interiorministry, describinghimself as a “goodwill ambassador betweenFrance and Spain”. In the interview, El Pequeroundly denied any involvement in theGranado-Delgado affair, his version being instark contradiction with the stories fromOctavio Alberola, Roberto Ariño, Luis AndrésEdo and Vicente Martí.This is how things went. Under thesupervision of Octavio Alberola, the DI had aplan in place to attempt Franco’s life on theday of his visit to the Oriente Palace for theformal presentation of diplomaticcredentials by new ambassadors. It wassubsequently discovered that this summerthere would be no presentation ofcredentials, so the plan could not proceed.Alberola passed the word to his comradesCipriano Mera and José Pascual who toldhim that therewas another teamon standbywhich might be able to carry it out whenFranco left for his holidays. The coordinatorhere was ‘El Peque’. They had to arrangecontact between ‘El Peque’‘s man andFrancisco Granado who held the actualexplosives in Madrid. A rendezvous wasarranged butEl Pequewas late sending in hisman and the link-up failed. Franco then leftfor his holidays in San Sebastian. Alberolafound himself obliged to send in JoaquinDelgado from France with instructions to

pull out andreturn to France,since there wasno way for theassassination bidto proceed. ‘ElPeque’‘s manpulled out intime, butGranado andDelgado werearrested, triedand executed by garrote vil, having beenfalsely accused of the planting of bombs twodays earlier in the Security Directorateheadquarters in Madrid’s Plaza del Sol andthe HQ of the Falangist unions. In thedocumentary, thirty years after the event,Sergio Hernández and Antonio Martinpublicly admitted that theywere responsiblefor those bombings.In the Uilm, Alberola stated that El Pequeproposed an alternative plan to him, whichhe denies. Roberto Ariño identiUied himselfas the man sent by El Peque—and again hedenies that. Ever since, suspicions havegrown that he may have been the personactually responsible for the capture of thetwo executed men, suspicions that gainedeven more substance following thepublication of more detailed investigationssuch as that carried out by Carlos Fonseca

Roberto Ariño

Antonio Martín

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for his book Garrote vil para dos inocentes.Years later, in October 2009, in adiscussion of those events — held on CNTpremises in Madrid — in which GuerreroLucas agreed to participate on the conditionthat Octavio Alberola was not present, heacknowledged to a group of 1960slibertarian militants, his former ‘comrades’(all of whom had been arrested and hadspent years in jail) that he had lied in his TVinterview. Alberola and Ariño had told thetruth. It also became clear in the course ofthese exchanges that back in the day he hadlied about or exaggerated the opportunitiesfor action open to him, lying to Madridlibertarians on the one hand and tolibertarians in France on the other. He haslied in triplicate about those events— in thepast and in the present. He assured thepeople in Toulouse that he had a libertarianaction group at his disposal in Madrid —there was nothing of the sort. What is more,their involvement with El Peque in 1962 ledto the arrest and imprisonment of youngpeople charged with planting explosives atthe Valle de los Caidos — people who whohad absolutely no involvement in the action.SpeciUically, Francisco Sánchez Ruano, anacquaintance of El Peque, received a 28-yearjail term of which he served 11 years inBurgos prison. Like Granado and Delgado,Ruano was innocent of the charges laidagainst him.Today , in light of the later evolution ofthis individual and his public contradictions,Octavio Alberola muses: “Since he was intouch with the French police back in 1963,

is it possible that they put a tail on Ariño and,through him, stumbled onDelgado, Granadoand the explosives? The French and Spanishpolice were working very closely togetherback then. Swapping intelligence. Francewaswatching us and the Spanish were watchingthe activists from the OAS (OrganisationArmée Secrete/Secret Armed Organisation)harboured by Franco. It is possible. I have noway of knowing if he was actively workingon behalf of the services back then, but Iknow that he had something to do with thewhole imbroglio. The fact is thatwithin a fewyears hewas brazenly acting in concert withboth police forces and admits to that, so it isfor everyone to draw his own conclusions.”4. Xavier Viñader and El Peque in 1970-1980In 1989 reporters Xavier Viñader and PereCosta Muste interviewed Jacinto GuerreroLucas for the February issue of themagazineInterviu. The article, entitled: “TheMastermind of anarchist activism speaksout: When we tried to bump off Franco”,

‘El Peque’ (circled), Madrid October 2009 ‘El Peque’, Madrid October 2009

Xavier Viñader

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appeared in edition No 144. “He madehimself known to the editors. Came downfrom France. A complete stranger. Seemedvery eager to blow his own trumpet. Anegocentric type. Simply refused to employthe Uirst person singular, a rather odd thingin an anarchist”, as Vinader rememberstoday.An aside. It is odd to read that to Viñaderhe identiUied the birthdate of his politicalawakening as 1979, using terms prettymuchidentical to those he had uttered to me inPerpignan seventeen years later, with aremarkable Uixation with spitting and ofpost-war Madrid.Was it commonplace back then forsomebody just to walk up a media outletand claim credit for sensational thingslike attempts to kill Franco? I askedViñader.No, but Eliseo Bayo’s book Los atentadoscontra Franco had come out and made nomention of him. Therewas something of theadventurer and opportunist about him. Hewas keen to blow his own trumpet.What did he say?He’s a great self publicist and at one pointmade it clear to us that he wanted to knowwhowas up and coming, politically. Showedgreat interest in the PSOE. And it was a bitodd for an anarchist with his background towant to court the socialists. But I havemused

upon that since, with hindsight.In the interview he claimed actions inwhich he had had no hand, as later cameto light, although it was not known at thetime.Precisely. Back then, in 1979, there werehardly any sources against which to checkthings out. I let him talk, And nobody pipedup to contradict him.Investigating police and far-rightintrigues is a speciality of yours. Forinstance, in Interviu you exposed the fore-runner of the GAL in Euskadi, somethingthat led to your being put on trial, forced intoexiled and tossed into prison. When did theGuerrero Lucas name next pop up again?In Paris in the late 1980s I contacted aRenseignements Generaux inspector by thename of Jean-Marc Dufourg who wasimplicated in the kidnapping and murder ofthe Protestant pastor Douce. Dufourg waswith theManipulation branch at the RG, andit was he who mentioned Guerrero Lucas tome as implicated in the dirtywar against ETAin the 1980s. I put that in a book later.Were you able to check out thatinformation?Yes, I spoke tomy contactswithin the RG,among them Roger Duran who had headedup the RG Investigation branch in Toulouse,and he conUirmed that he [El Peque] was aninformant.Were you able to establish if he had beena Francoist police plant in the ranks of theanarchist exiles right from the start?I had inmind thewriting of a book calledToulouse, the red-and-black capital, which Iwas never able to complete. But I did keeptabs on him. It is complicated for he hasthrown up many a smokescreen. He goes infor story-telling as a way of covering up thetruth. You can never rely on a word he says.You need to check it out, not in triplicate butagainst thirteen different sources. I got intouch with people who were with theLibertarian Youth inMadrid in the 1960s and

General Eduardo Blanco, head of Franco’s security services

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back then they had strong suspicions that hewasworking hand-in-glovewith the Spanishpolice. His own father may well have been apoliceman and Interior ministry ofUicial ...Why did he show up in Toulouse in 1961?That is not clear. Things are a bitnebulous there. He arrived in Toulouse withtwo other comrades, representing theNational Committee of the CNT of theInterior. The other two slipped back acrossthe Pyrenees using clandestine trails, butGuerrero—knownback then as ‘Hidalgo’—put off returning. A few days later the newsbroke that those who had attended theToulouse meeting had been arrested inMadrid, and somebody put it about that,while questioning them, the police had beengreatly concerned to learn about Guerrero’swhereabouts: hewas to remain in Toulouse.Years later an anarchist militant whowitnessed the Madrid arrests at Uirst handmentioned that the entire thing was highlysuspicious. It was as if they were allexpected. Given what we have learnt aboutthe guy since, it seems all too clear that itwas a police operation designed to bolsterhis foothold in exile circles.And he was later recruited by the Frenchpolice?Yes, I know that for a fact. I had it fromthe French policeman sent to arrest andrecruit him. A freemason, to boot. And hebecame an informer.Was that in 1962, when he ‘lost’ thatbriefcase of documents?More or less, I cannot exactly remember.Commissaire Tatareau set up a meeting andreturned the documents, claiming that apeasant had found them dumped in theUields. But in actual fact it was a put-up jobby the RG.From which one might conclude that hewas a Francoist plant from the outset andthat once in France he came into contactwith the RG and started working for bothagencies?

Exactly.And where did the connection withRafael Vera and the top echelons at theInterior ministry come in?According to my notes, in 1984. On thestrength of an introduction from GabrielUrralburu, the president of the governmentof Navarra. Guerrero was representing aFrench building Uirm seeking a permit for awaste plant and drinkingwaterworks. He letit be known that he was on very good termswith the French Interiorminister. Urralburuintroduced him to Luis Roldán, the thengovernment delegate inNavarra. Roldánwasseeking a thaw in relations between the CivilGuard and the French PAF (Air and BorderPolice). This came hot on the heels of theincident inwhich four Spanish police ofUicerswere arrested on French soil whileattempting to abduct the ETA activistLarretxea. Roldán had awordwith Vera, butthe whole thing was a ruse by Julio Feo,Felipe González’s secretary, paving thewayfor Guerrero join the secret staff of theInterior ministry. The seal was set on thewhole thing at a dinner in Irún, attended by

Rafael Vera, Secretary of State for Security in thegovernment of Felipe González (24 octubre 1986 and 29January 1994). Arrested and convicted in July 1998 oncharges of kidnapping and malversion of public funds inrelation to the GAL operation and the dirty war againstETA, his conviction was overturned by the EuropeanTribunal of Human Rights on various technicalities.

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Guerrero, Vera, the governor of GuipuzcoaJulen Elorriaga, Civil Guard ColonelEnrique Rodriguez Galindo andcommissaire Joel Cathala from the PAF.What, assuming it can be pinned down,was Guerrero’s function?Hewas in charge of cooperationwith theFrench police, was involved in the dialoguewith the ETA leaders in Santo Domingo, metwith ETA lawyers in the south of France andgave all round support to the GAL’s para-police operations. He ticked all the boxes. Intheir internal documents the etarras referredto him as the Spanish state’s ‘Botijero’.And what is the most recent news youhave of him?During Montserrat Tura’s term in chargeof the Interior department he was offered totheMossos d’Esquadra to brief thembut theyrejected him.5. French former Inspector Jean-MarcDufourg, Guerrero and the GALOn the basis of El Mundo’s publication ofthose alleged documents from JacintoGuerrero’s private archives, from which itappears—assuming they are correct— thata trawl was carried out among the Frenchpolice and judges for Uigures favourablydisposed to collaboratingwith theGAL, thereis some interest in reviewing the chargeslevelled in this regard by one French policeofUicer at the start of the 1990s.Inspector Jean-Marc Dufourg spent nineyears in the 1980s working with

Renseignements Generaux’s ‘Manipulation’branch. It was his job to investigate, recruitand handle informers in extremist and pro-independent groups of every persuasion.Dufourg was jailed over the murkyabduction-murder of the gay pastorDouce. Itwas rumoured at the time that Dufourg wasbeing used as a patsy.In jail hewrotememoirs of his days in theforce, Section Manipulation. Del’antiterrorisme a l’affaire Douce (MichelLafon, 1991). His lawyer— none other thanJacques Verges, states in a foreword: “Forthe very Uirst time a RenseignemnentsGeneraux inspector talks ofwhat he has seenand shows how the ties of the political‘establishment’ with the underworld areevery bit as strong as those with businesscriminality.”Of all the missions entrusted to him overthis period, Dufourg reckons that the GALepisode was the most warped. One day hehad a visitor to his ofUice who came withrecommendations from his superiors. Thiswas JacintoGuerrero Lucas. The visitormadea bad impression on the inspector from themoment he walked in. “He introducedhimself as being very close to the SpanishInterior minister. And spoke of thesuperintendents with whom he was closelyin touch: Ballesteros and Fuce. He thenwentto have a word with Ferrand [his superior].‘I’m the man in charge of the matter youknow about.’“One of Dufourg’s squad colleaguesrecognised Guerrero as one of the oldinformers he had planted in Spanishanarchist and GRAPO circles.For about a year this strange characterreported to Dufourg’s superior, in thecompanyof a high-ranking Spanish ofUicial bythe name of Pedro. ‘On every visit theybrought Uiles containing snapshots, namesand addresses of ETA militants. GuerreroLucas was passing this intelligence on to theSpanish government,who forwarded it to the

Inspector Jean-Marc Dufourg (RG)

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killers of the GAL”, he concludes.In a letter to the newspaper Deia (26April 1991), Jacinto Guerrero Lucas deniedthe inspector’s claimdeclaring: “ETA, GRAPOand the GAL all come from the same stableand I hold each of them in equal contempt.”And in that unmistakable style of his heannounced that he would look to the courts.I intend to make this corrupt, lying,pretentious, failed schemer of an inspector— this ‘warmachine’ as he describes himself,although I reckon he is in need of psychiatrictreatment rather than an mechanicaloverhaul— eat dust. “The courts, as Octavio Alberola pointsout,will uphold his right publicly to rebut thefacts set out in the book but cannot compelthe author or the press to alter what theyhave already put into print.The 9 July 1991 edition of Le Mondecarried this small insertion: “Court notice:Under appropriate order of 24 May 1991,Angel Guerrero Lucas has been authorised toregister with the public his objections tohaving been called into question and theintolerable trespasses inUlicted upon him byJean-Marc Dufourg’s book entitled SectionManipulation.”

Even so, the information provided byDufourg continued being reprinted. On 21September 1997, in Le Monde, the reporterRoland-Pierre Paringaux published anextensive piece entitled “French Police StandAccused of Having Collaborated with theGAL”. “Spanish revelations about the anti-ETAcommandos shed light upon the role ofseveral French police ofUicers suspected ofcorruption. Over and above any individualcases, questions are being asked about theentire anti-terrorist collaboration betweenFrance and Spain.”“Several police ofUicers, including theformer head of the Air and Border Police inthe Pyrenees-Atlantiques department standaccusedby their Spanish colleagues of having— since 1982 and in return for money —supplied GAL personnelwith the photos andaddresses of ETA militants. And likewise, ofhaving helped recruit thugs. In addition tothese personal stories, questions have beenraised about the entire French-Spanish anti-terrorist policy. Since 1983, cooperationbetween the two countries’ agencies oscontinually being reinforced”, wroteParingaux.http://www.vilaweb.cat/

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